Three Years Later

I step out of my black town car and glance up at the office building in front of me. The wind slides down the block and ruffles my suit as I adjust my briefcase and take a deep breath.

Another meeting with lawyers, another wasted afternoon. I hate getting bogged down in legal stuff, especially when a project wasn’t even my idea. If I had my say, we’d move on from this fiasco and find something else, but Reid was insistent. He thinks this is going to be the next big thing.

“Don’t look so angry,” he says, coming around the car.

I glance at him and sigh. Reid’s a few years older than me with salt and pepper hair, expensive sunglasses, a strong jaw, and a nice navy suit. I’ve known him for years, ever since we partnered up to start our development firm, and he’s my closest friend in the world.

And he still annoys the hell out of me sometimes.

“You’re too chipper,” I say to him as we walk toward the meeting. Our lawyers should already be there, doing whatever it is we pay them to do. And they better be doing it really well, considering how much they cost per hour.

“I just love this stuff,” Reid says, grinning. “I mean, we have every legal right to develop our property as we see fit, but these environmental wackos wants to stop us anyway.”

I glance down at the ground. I wouldn’t call these people wackos, not at all. “Still seems like a lot of work for such a small project.”

“Nonsense,” he says, clapping my shoulder. “This is going to make us millions.”

I seriously doubt it, but I don’t say that. We’ve been doing so well lately that I can let Reid get away with one, even if I think it’s a waste of time and resources. He seems really invested in it, and I’m not going to stop it, although I wish I weren’t involved at all.

Not much I can do about it, though. We’re in this together, always have been, and I’ll back him up like I always have.

We walk into the office building and ride the elevator up to the fifteenth floor. A nice looking secretary with long dark hair leads us into the conference rooms where our lawyers are already in talks with the opposition lawyers.

I glance at Reid and he tosses me a wink. We sit down at the table and the lawyers barely even acknowledge our presence, which is fine by me. We’re required to be here by law, or at least to make an appearance, but we’re not really doing or saying anything at this meeting. It’s just preliminary, a way for each side to get a feel for the other.

I glance around the table and take in the faces of the people we’re facing. Lawyers all look alike to me, dressed in their modestly priced suits, sporting modestly priced haircuts, and speaking in modestly priced sentences. They’re always bland and simple and straight-laced, especially the more expensive ones. The cheaper the suit they’re wearing, the bigger their billing typically is, or at least that’s what I’ve found.

I zone out a little bit as the lawyers start talking in their annoying jargon. This whole thing seems absurd to me, if I’m totally honest. We bought a parcel of land downtown a few years ago, basically an empty field that’s just growing weeds. In the last year or so, the whole area was rezoned, and now we’re able to develop the land into a retail and living space, or at least that’s Reid’s plan. It’s in a great spot, but it’s not exactly huge, so the building will have to be pretty tall.

The problem is, though, these environmental lawyers are arguing that the land is protected by certain state and city statutes designed to keep the city green or whatever that means. Personally, I think we should just sell the land for a slight profit to whoever wants to build it into a park and be done with this, but Reid’s not going to let some “hippie assholes” (his words) beat him.

So here I am, stuck in a meeting I don’t care about, listening to lawyers argue about an issue I’m not interested in. I can practically feel my eyes drooping as the lawyers drone on and on about legal proceedings, evidence, precedent, and all that mumbo jumbo, when suddenly she walks in through the door.

I perk up immediately. Thick auburn hair, long dark eyelashes, bright green eyes, smooth pale skin: I’d recognize her anywhere, even three years later. She hesitates a second, looking a little embarrassed, before hurrying over to the opposing counsel’s side.

I stare at her as she sits down. She still hasn’t noticed me, and I bet she has no clue that I’m here. Reid’s name is all over this stuff, not mine, so I doubt she even knows this is my company. Assuming she even remembers me, but I’m pretty sure she does.

I definitely remember her.

She looks so nervous as I step into my bedroom. She hangs in the doorway, looking at me cautiously.

“You’re not some crazy murderer, right?” she asks.

“It’s a little late for that question, don’t you think?” I grin at her and laugh at her scared expression. “I’m kidding, Teagan. No, I’m not some murderer.” I hold out my hand. “Come here.”

She walks over to me slowly, her eyes wide, her sexy hips swaying. I can see the outline of her breasts under her dress and I still have her taste in my mouth. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted someone so badly in my life before, although I’ve had plenty of women before this.

There’s just something about her. Something innocent, something good… something I want to sully, ruin, dirty, destroy.

She steps over and I pull her close to me. I kiss her softly, lips lingering on hers as I slowly move them down toward her ear.

“Have you ever been tied up before?” I whisper to her.

I feel her stiffen. “No,” she says.

“Good,” I answer, smirking at her. “I like a first timer.”

For a second, I’m worried she might pull away, but instead she flings herself at me, kissing me with renewed intensity.

I’ve gone over and over that night in the last three years. I’ve had other women in my home, tied up and punished in my bedroom, but none like her. None even close to her.

And now she’s here, sitting across the table from me. In a second, she’s going to look up, and I know what I’ll see.

I take a deep breath, calming myself. I feel like I’m running a marathon. Slowly she places her notebook on the tabletop and raises her eyes, scanning the room, until she stops at me.

There it is. Recognition blooms across her face. She blushes slightly, and I know she’s thinking about what we did that night, how fucking good it felt. It’s all flashing across her eyes right now, and I bet she’s dripping wet remembering my fingers on her skin, my lips against her ear, whispering all the dirty, filthy things I want to make her do.

And then she looks away quickly and the moment passes. Just a short moment of recognition before she’s pulled back into her job. She turns into a lawyer in that moment, putting on her mask of professionalism. I bet she’s going to pretend like we don’t know each other, but that’s fine by me.

She remembers. She’s been thinking about it too. And I bet she wants another taste just as much as I do.

I stare at her, a smile on my face. I’m not even trying to hide it. I catch her glance at me, blush again, and quickly look down. I want her to know that I remember and I’ve been dreaming about her. She may have gotten away three years ago, ignored my calls, but she’s back in my life. Fate brought her here, to this table. There’s no denying it.

This meeting just got so much more interesting.